Hi, everybody. I'm Audrey Moore with the Audrey Helps Actors podcast and today I have the one and only if you want to introduce yourself.

It is Sean Aston here. Hi, I like saying my name. It makes me feel important. Right. It's good.

I'm walking and when I get about a block and a half, we're the required spot and I'll just like tuck in so we can speak like normal civilized human beings.

Wonderful. I'm just going to introduce you in terms of for everyone to know a little bit about your history.

I think everyone listening knows that you are an actor with a very long resume and you've been a member of SAG and now SAG Actra for 40 plus years.

Oh, man, when you say it like that. Wow. Well, to be fair, you started as a wee babe. I mean, you came right out the womb, acting.

I'm going to just I'm going to rest on that thought. Okay. Great. You are also an actor who is second generation.

Your mother, the late great patty Duke. She was also a child actress and she was also president of SAG during part of her time in the 80s.

My intention of having you on in specific was because I watched you wrangle the WNWs here in Los Angeles. They were over zoom.

I thought you handled them with such kindness, with such diplomacy, thoughtfulness. And I was so impressed by your management and true interest in what everyone had to say and the consideration and work that everyone was bringing forth to the table.

So can you just quickly before we get into the strike authorization vote? Can you tell everyone a little bit about what the WWs are?

Your involvement in that and just sort of helped to explain that we didn't just arrive at a strike authorization like Willie Nilly one day.

I'll drag hope my mother is in heaven and listening to this podcast right now because that compliment you just paid me was for the ages.

I mean, that was just such a beautiful thing you said. I had been on the Netflix negotiating committee and everyone came out of that feeling like it was a very successful, you know, we achieved a successful result.

So, you know, for me to find myself as the next step of co-chairing the WNWs was, you know, when you're in a negotiation, it's your team and you're pushing things across the table and they're coming back.

But mostly your work isn't as a member of the committee isn't with, you know, opposite producers with their arms folded and staring daggers at each other.

It's in our own room with our own people trying to get to the bottom of issues, understand the specificity, get the details and what their producers are doing and what they, how they think they're advancing themselves with things and where you have to give in and not.

So, it's not, it's not, it's not member-facing. The fact that the WWs are accomplishing two things, they're allowing any member the opportunity to come into a room with elected leaders and talk about anything that's bothering them, anything that needs to be improved.

And tell us what's on your mind, but we somehow find ourselves in this position where people are looking to you for help.

And so, how do you respond to that? You know, the most important thing is to listen closely.

I had attended 13 of those meetings. I want people just to understand talking about strategy is a part of what happens within these WNWs as you prepare for negotiations.

When you are an elected leader and your job is to sit on the other side of a Zoom or table and hear the issues that members are having directly, the opportunity for the members is great and the responsibility for the member leaders is awesome.

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